The image of Brittany Murphy is frozen in time. She is the wide-eyed girl from Clueless, the gritty survivor in 8 Mile, and the bubbly voice of Luanne Platter. But when she died at just 32 years old on a cold December morning in 2009, the spotlight shifted away from her talent and onto a very strange, very insulated domestic life. At the center of it all? Brittany Murphy's mom and husband.
Sharon Murphy and Simon Monjack. Their names became synonymous with one of the most baffling celebrity tragedies in Hollywood history. If you’ve spent any time on the dark corners of the internet, you’ve seen the theories. Mold. Poison. Secret affairs. But the reality of what happened inside that Hollywood Hills mansion—the one Brittany bought from Britney Spears—is actually much sadder and more claustrophobic than a simple conspiracy.
A House of Three
For years, Brittany, Sharon, and Simon were a "tight unit." That’s how Simon’s own mother, Linda, described them. They didn't just live together; they were a fortress. Sharon had raised Brittany as a single mother, moving her across the country to chase the dream. They weren't just mother and daughter; they were halves of a whole.
Then came Simon Monjack.
Simon was a British screenwriter with a reputation that preceded him. Many in Brittany's circle saw him as a con artist, a "Svengali" figure who isolated her from her friends. He had legal issues, visa problems, and a trail of debt. Yet, Sharon welcomed him. When Brittany and Simon married in 2007, Sharon didn't move out. She stayed right there in the master suite area.
They lived in a weird sort of twilight. The house was often described as dark, filled with piles of designer clothes, and strictly temperature-controlled because Simon claimed to have heart issues. They were reportedly paranoid, convinced they were being watched by helicopters. It was a pressure cooker of illness and anxiety.
The First Tragedy: December 20, 2009
The day Brittany died started with a collapse in her bathroom. She told her mother, "Mommy, I can't catch my breath. Help me." Those were some of her final words.
When the autopsy results came back, the world was shocked. It wasn't an overdose in the traditional "rock star" sense. The coroner listed the primary cause of death as pneumonia, with iron-deficiency anemia and multiple drug intoxication as contributing factors. The drugs were legal—over-the-counter cold meds and prescriptions like Vicodin and Klonopin.
Basically, Brittany was very sick, her blood was weak, and her body couldn't fight off the infection while sedated by the meds. The most haunting part? The coroner, Ed Winter, famously said that if she had been taken to a doctor even 24 hours earlier, she likely would have lived.
Why didn't they take her?
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The Five Months of Simon and Sharon
This is where the story of Brittany Murphy's mom and husband gets truly uncomfortable for the public. After Brittany passed, Simon and Sharon didn't retreat. They stayed in that same house. Together.
They gave a joint interview to Larry King that felt... off. They were dazed. Simon spoke for Sharon. At one point, they argued over the timeline of Brittany's final words. It was during this period that rumors began to swirl about the nature of their relationship.
Reports emerged—most notably in the HBO documentary What Happened, Brittany Murphy?—that Simon and Sharon were sharing the same bed after Brittany's death. Sharon has vehemently denied this, calling the rumors "disgusting." She maintained they were simply two grieving people holding onto the only family they had left.
Simon told reporters he couldn't leave Sharon alone because she was too fragile. He planned to move her to New York with him. They even did a photoshoot where they held hands and looked into each other's eyes, looking more like a grieving couple than a mother-in-law and son-in-law. It was weird. Honestly, it was just deeply weird.
History Repeats Itself: May 23, 2010
Five months later, Sharon walked into the bedroom and found Simon Monjack unresponsive. He was 40 years old.
The cause of death? Pneumonia and severe anemia. The exact same thing that killed Brittany.
This is the "glitch in the matrix" moment for most people. How do two adults die of the same thing, in the same house, five months apart? The L.A. County Department of Health looked into toxic mold. Sharon initially fought this idea, calling it "absurd," but later sued the builders of the home, claiming mold was the culprit. The coroner, however, stood by the original findings: no evidence of mold in the lungs.
The Theories vs. The Reality
Brittany’s father, Angelo Bertolotti, spent years trying to prove his daughter was poisoned. He even got a private lab to test a hair sample, which allegedly showed high levels of heavy metals (like those found in rat poison).
Sharon called his claims a "smear."
The most nuanced take? It wasn't a murder mystery. It was a tragedy of isolation. Simon was a man who reportedly faked cancer to manipulate people. He was a "con man" who convinced Brittany and Sharon that he was the only one they could trust. In that environment, medical help wasn't the first thought—protecting their "fortress" was.
They were sick, they were medicated, and they were alone.
Where is Sharon Murphy Now?
After Simon died, Sharon eventually sold the house at a loss. It was later torn down and rebuilt, an attempt to scrub the "bad energy" from the Hollywood Hills.
Sharon has largely vanished from the public eye. In 2011, she wrote a letter to The Hollywood Reporter expressing her grief and frustration with the "sensationalism" surrounding her family. Since then? Silence. Even private investigators hired by documentary filmmakers have struggled to find her. She’s a ghost in a city that usually doesn't let people disappear.
Lessons from the Murphy Tragedy
If there is anything to take away from the saga of Brittany Murphy's mom and husband, it’s the danger of the "Hollywood bubble."
- Medical Advocacy: Never ignore "flu-like" symptoms that don't improve, especially if accompanied by shortness of breath. Anemia makes everything more dangerous.
- Isolation is a Red Flag: When someone encourages you to cut off friends and family, it’s rarely out of love.
- The "Unlucky" House: Whether you believe in mold or bad energy, the environment we live in impacts our health. If you feel sick in your own home, get it tested by a professional.
The story isn't a movie, even though it feels like a thriller. It’s the story of a girl who had everything and the two people she loved most who, for whatever reason, couldn't save her—and then couldn't save themselves.
To understand the full scope of the medical findings, you can look up the official L.A. County Coroner’s reports for both Brittany and Simon. They provide a clinical, if chilling, look at the final hours of two people who were once the center of Sharon Murphy's world.
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Next Steps:
If you are concerned about the air quality or potential mold in an older home, you should contact a certified industrial hygienist (not just a mold remediation company) to perform a comprehensive indoor air quality test. For those interested in the psychological aspects of celebrity isolation, researching the "Svengali effect" in high-profile domestic cases offers significant insight into the Murphy-Monjack dynamic.